sauce
Americannoun
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sauces
plural
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any preparation, usually liquid or semiliquid, eaten as a gravy or as a relish accompanying food.
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stewed fruit, often puréed and served as an accompaniment to meat, dessert, or other food.
cranberry sauce.
-
something that adds piquance or zest.
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Informal. sauciness; impertinence; impudence.
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Slang. Usually the sauce hard liquor.
He's on the sauce again.
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Archaic. garden vegetables eaten with meat.
verb (used with object)
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sauces,
present (3rd person singular)
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sauced,
past participle, past
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saucing
present participle
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to dress or prepare with sauce; season.
meat well sauced.
-
to make a sauce of.
Tomatoes must be sauced while ripe.
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to give piquance or zest to.
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to make agreeable or less harsh.
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Informal. to speak impertinently or saucily to.
noun
-
any liquid or semiliquid preparation eaten with food to enhance its flavour
-
anything that adds piquancy
-
stewed fruit
-
dialect vegetables eaten with meat
-
informal impudent language or behaviour
verb
-
to prepare (food) with sauce
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to add zest to
-
to make agreeable or less severe
-
informal to be saucy to
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
saucesimple
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saucessimple
-
have saucedperfect
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has saucedperfect
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am saucingprogressive
-
are saucingprogressive
-
is saucingprogressive
-
have been saucingperfect progressive
-
has been saucingperfect progressive
Past
-
saucedsimple
-
had saucedperfect
-
was saucingprogressive
-
were saucingprogressive
-
had been saucingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of sauce
First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English, from Middle French, from Late Latin salsa, noun use of feminine of Latin salsus “salted,” past participle of sallere “to salt,” derivative of sāl “salt”; see also salt 1
Explanation
A sauce is a nearly-liquid or soft topping or condiment for food. You might prefer your spaghetti with tomato sauce and your broccoli with cheese sauce. The cuisine of every country and region has its own sauces, from chutney served with Indian dosas to Hollandaise sauce on eggs Benedict and caramel sauce dolloped on sticky toffee pudding. You can even use sauce as a fancy verb: "Shall I sauce the beef?" Figuratively, to sauce someone is to speak in an impudent or cheeky way.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
This is also when I deploy what I lovingly think of as my potions and powders: anchovy, tomato paste, miso, soy sauce, fish sauce, bouillon paste or cubes, mushroom and brown gravy powder.
From Salon ● Sep. 28, 2026
The restaurant’s TikTok videos carry many AI telltales, from ube pancakes slathered in pulsating purple sauce to a three-handed bartender.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 24, 2026
Many are surprised by these results, since they believe that the rich and famous must have some secret sauce that explains their much-vaunted status at the top of the wealth ladder.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 24, 2026
"The robust training method is the secret sauce of this technique," How explains.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 22, 2026
They ate mealie porridge, called sadza, with tomato, onion, and chili sauce; boiled pumpkin leaves; and okra with peanut butter.
From "A Girl Named Disaster" by Nancy Farmer
Foie gras is his favorite ingredient and a fixture on his menu -- used in his tartare presentation, to mount sauces, as a pate, and even for ice cream.
From Barron's ● Sep. 28, 2026
“Over the years, McDonald’s has tried multiple iterations for chicken and strips, opting for different seasoning, cuts and sauces, all with little success,” he said.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 23, 2026
Eataly itself sells a $25.99 Alfredo that, unlike so many jarred Alfredo sauces, does not taste as though someone dissolved Parmesan into wallpaper paste.
From Salon ● Sep. 20, 2026
Wingstop offers 13 different dipping sauces, and Buffalo Wild Wings boasts 23 different flavorings.
From Slate ● Aug. 24, 2026
Together we made soups and sauces and all kinds of cool stuff.
From "The Epic Fail of Arturo Zamora" by Pablo Cartaya
Ferrell said later that he was glad to be in the back row because it meant nobody behind him got sauced.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 29, 2026
I’m also a fan of intentionally included frico, like small crisps interspersed throughout a delicately sauced pasta or a green salad that has crunchy bits of frico all throughout for texture, color and flavor.
From Salon ● Mar. 15, 2025
Cook, stirring often, until the shrimp are lightly sauced and opaque throughout.
From Washington Times ● Jul. 12, 2023
Mile 11 of Interstate 55, in Memphis, was sauced up.
From New York Times ● Aug. 31, 2022
"That was good, but now I'd like a leg of Iamb. A whole leg, Just for me, sauced with mint and honey and cloves. Did you see any lambs?"
From "A Clash of Kings" by George R.R. Martin
Of this generous, very pretty platter, my only sorrow was an uneven saucing, leaving one side somewhat bereft of the overall excellence.
From Seattle Times ● Jul. 26, 2023
Little did she know that I did, and obviously still do, find a deep, personal satisfaction with all things chopping, sauteing, saucing, cooking and roasting.
From Salon ● Feb. 26, 2023
But like self-absorbed restaurant owners everywhere, I push for more, hungry for feedback about the roll I selected for the brisket sandwich or the artful saucing of the pasta in her Thermos.
From New York Times ● Sep. 20, 2019
But for the last couple of weeks, two guys known for making pizzas in Altadena have been frying and saucing excellent chicken wings out of a corner of the store.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 26, 2016
You're a good fellow, Philip, and I beg your pardon for saucing you.
From A Great Emergency and Other Tales by Juliana Horatia Gatty Ewing
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
